Free ride/jump bike?

roliusprime

Hi there,

Apologies that this is a slightly vague query...

In between long sessions on the Ridgeway I've been messing about on my Cannondale SL3 at the nearby BMX jump track. I'm fairly new and crap to this sort of thing but can now clear the flat top on the small and medium jumps (there are only 3 jumps - its not that big a park!). But its been good fun for me...

Anyway a couple of people said I'd find things a lot easier on a jump specific or free ride frame - I'm wondering how true this is? Does anybody have any opinions? ie easier/better vs expense of new frame/bike

I can't justify a new bike solely for jumping but I could get rid of my other bike (a commuter - trek -which I now don't need) to make space for a bike that excelled at jumping and could also handle some shorter trail rides too...

Thanks for any advice

R

rockmonkeysc

Its a lot easier on a jump bike. The smaller frame and more suitable geometry makes a jump bike a lot more balanced than a trail or xc bike.
Something like a Trek Ticket or Charge Blender would make a reasonable compromise. They are good as jump bikes and not too bad as trail bikes for shorter rides.

roliusprime

Cheers for the reply

both those bikes look nice - but is the blender discontinued?

how about the cove foreplay frame?

I don't mind buying a frame and building up as it would be a fun project.

Thanks again

pesky_jones

Dartmoor hornet!

Not that i'm biased in any way

roliusprime

Cheers - looks pretty cool too - but hard to buy in the UK?

Any advice on the Cove? Or maybe a British company steel frame?

rockmonkeysc

The Cove is good but I would possibly go for the Syiffee instead.
The Blender is discontinued but worth considering a ised one, they are very good.
Dartmoor Hornet is possibly not as good for dirt jumps but better as a hardcore trail bike. I can't remember what it's called but their 4x frame would be good. No problem getting them in the uk, Dartmoor cycles in Devon sell them.

pesky_jones

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The Cove is good but I would possibly go for the Syiffee instead.
The Blender is discontinued but worth considering a ised one, they are very good.
Dartmoor Hornet is possibly not as good for dirt jumps but better as a hardcore trail bike. I can't remember what it's called but their 4x frame would be good. No problem getting them in the uk, Dartmoor cycles in Devon sell them.

twosixplayer? phantom? Think its the phantom.

Yeah hornet is not so much of a dirt jump bike

roliusprime

Thanks for the advice on the Dartmoor stuff and Cove.

So just quickly back to part of my original question

lets say I'm going to be hitting some jumps for an hour - 2 or 3 times a week - will I see a significant improvement over my cannondale with these suggested bikes.

I understand it will definitely be an improvement but is it £700-£1000 of improvement!?

One guy I spoke to said I shouldn't even try and jump my cannondale regularly as it was a) dangerous as its the wrong shape and b) not tough enough

One other thing I'm curious about is will learning better jumps and manuals etc with a smaller bike then translate to better ability on the XC bike when I'm out on an all day epic - or does it not really work like that?

Sorry if this stuff is a bit obvious but I've only ridden 'big' bikes in the past... For example I had a ride around on my gf's small Spec and it didn't feel nimble and ready to take off! Just small and awkward... I know that's not a good comparison but the only one I have at the mo!
Cheers

Mojo_666

Freeride and DJ bikes are very very different, what do you actually want to do? a backflip 360 tailwhip or a 40ft gap jump?

roliusprime

ha! more into just getting distance and height rather than tricks. Maybe a few tabletops if I'm lucky.

I'd also appreciate something that was super agile on a 'normal' trail too. Something easier to bunnyhop and manual but still able to handle a few miles of peddling.

I'm definitely happy to pick the right thing up 2nd hand too.

Mojo_666

roliusprime wrote:

ha! more into just getting distance and height rather than tricks. Maybe a few tabletops if I'm lucky.

I'd also appreciate something that was super agile on a 'normal' trail too. Something easier to bunnyhop and manual but still able to handle a few miles of peddling.

I'm definitely happy to pick the right thing up 2nd hand too.

You can do that on any bike, doesn't have to be limiting like a DJ or free ride, maybe you should just get a trail bike so you can do everything? if you feel the need to specialize you can buy a second bike?

roliusprime

Cheers - so are you saying that the Cannondale I have is fine for the types of jumping etc I plan to do?

I'm a bit confused between trail bike and XC bike.
Ta!

Mander88

All you need is a jack of all trades hard tail.
The Cannondale SL3 is a very focused Cross country bike. Very very good for that. It wont be the easiest to jump though. Its not designed to do that.

The Charge Blender is ok, but quite limiting if you want to do longer rides. I would look at the Charge Cooker range. They are well priced and lots of fun. They are 29er xc/trail bikes, but not so aggressively xc focused like the Cannondale. I have been riding a Cooker and love it. If you want something a bit more playful and have the budget the Commencal Meta AM2 650b looks to be a huge laugh. Longer travel hard tail.

felix.london

Have look through here;

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=12942583

A great selection of more aggressive style hardtails. Or as others have said just pick up a cheap used DJ bike. Plenty around and great fun just for messing about on

rockmonkeysc

How far do you want to go with jumping? Do you want to build up to big doubles and trick jumps which send you several feet in the air and have 20+ foot gaps to the landing? Or just small jumps a few feet high and 10 - 15 foot long?
If it's the first you want a specific jump bike and it will be vastly better than your Canondale even as you are learning to build up to this stuff. If it's the second and you plan to spend time sessioning jumps you don't need a focused jump bike but your Canondale isn't ideal either. You would be better off with something a little more stable and with a better fork which won't dive as easily. You could replace your frame with something like an On-One 456 (or summer season) and get something like a Rockshox Recon fork to hold up the front end better.
Another cheap option is a BMX for jumping and keep your Canondale for xc.

Maro

Check out the offerings from DMR, they're a British company and are mainly DJ focussed. I have an early DMR Trailstar which I have used for DH, shorter XC rides and BSX/4X races, but mainly it was used to mess around on jumps.

http://www.dmrbikes.com/products/frames

roliusprime

Cheers for all the help and advice guys. Much appreciated!

In the end I went with a Charge Blender frame and will build it up as a project.

I have some old Tora 100mm forks and I'll probably build it with a mixture of 2nd hand and new components.

So I'm 5'11 with quite a long back and I've been hearing a lot about how geometry and riding position is super important on a jump/fun bike.

Any advice on bars and stem? I'm thinking I'll need a short stem with high riser bars so I'm not hunched over. I was looking at DMR for the riser bars.

I saw this combo from Merlin though - what do you reckon? not enough rise?

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/m ... -stem.html

Cheers!

rockmonkeysc

Bars might be a bit wide but you can try them and cut them down if you need to.